Travel Guide to Zhejiang Province: A Poetic & Picturesque Land south of the Yangtze River with China’s Largest Number of Islands

Zhejiang Province, abbreviated as “Zhe”, is a provincial-level administrative region of the People’s Republic of China, with Hangzhou as its capital. Located on China’s southeast coast and the southern wing of the Yangtze River Delta, it faces the East China Sea to the east, borders Shanghai and Jiangsu to the north, connects Fujian to the south, and adjoins Anhui and Jiangxi to the west. As of April 2025, Zhejiang governs 11 prefecture-level cities, consisting of 37 urban districts, 20 county-level cities, 32 counties and 1 autonomous county, alongside 489 subdistricts, 619 towns and 257 townships. The Qiantang River, historically known as the Zhe River, is the largest river in Zhejiang, from which the province derives its name.
The terrain of Zhejiang is summarized as “seven parts mountains, one part water and two parts farmland”. The landform slopes in a stepped pattern from the southwest to the northeast. The northeast features flat alluvial plains; the east is dominated by hills and coastal plains; the central area mainly comprises hills and basins; and the southwest is covered chiefly by mountains and hills. Geographically, Zhejiang is divided into six major terrain zones: the Northern Zhejiang Plain, Western Zhejiang Mid-mountain Hills, Eastern Zhejiang Hills, Central Jinhua-Quzhou Basin, Southern Zhejiang Mountains, Southeast Coastal Plains and offshore islands. Huangmao Peak, standing at 1,929 meters above sea level, is the highest point in Zhejiang. There are four major plains: the Hangzhou-Jiaxing-Huzhou Plain, Ningbo-Shaoxing Plain, Jinhua-Lishui-Quzhou Plain, and Wenzhou-Taizhou Plain. The water system includes eight major river networks — the Qiantang River, Ou River, Ling River, Tiaoxi Stream, Yong River, Feiyun River, Ao River and Cao’e River — plus the Zhejiang section of the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal. The Qiantang River ranks as the province’s primary waterway. Four renowned lakes scatter across the region: West Lake in Hangzhou, Dongqian Lake in Ningbo, South Lake in Jiaxing and East Lake in Shaoxing.
Zhejiang boasts the largest number of islands among all Chinese provinces, with Zhoushan Island (the main island of the Zhoushan Archipelago) being China’s fourth-largest island. Its total coastline length tops the national list. The province features a subtropical humid monsoon climate.
In the early Ming Dynasty, the Zhejiang Branch Secretariat was established, marking the official emergence of the provincial name. It was later restructured into the Zhejiang Administrative Commission, laying the basic boundary framework of the province. In the early Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty, it was formally designated Zhejiang Province, a name still in use today. As one of the cradles of ancient Chinese civilization and fine traditional culture, Zhejiang preserves Neolithic cultures including the Liangzhu Culture, Hemudu Culture and Majiabang Culture, as well as regional civilizations such as Wu-Yue Culture, Jiangnan Culture and Song-style Elegance Culture.
Approved by the State Council, Zhejiang lies at the intersection of the Yangtze River Economic Belt development and the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, serving as a pioneer in advancing Chinese-style modernization. In May 2021, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council supported Zhejiang in building a demonstration zone for high-quality common prosperity. The province’s per capita GDP has reached the level of upper-middle developed economies. For many consecutive years, both urban and rural residents’ per capita disposable income have ranked first nationwide among provincial-level regions. Zhejiang is also the only province where resident income in all prefecture-level cities exceeds the national average.
Zhejiang sees minimal internal disparities in economic development. Hangzhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing and Wenzhou form its four major economic pillars, with Hangzhou and Ningbo consistently ranking among China’s top 20 cities in economic strength. The private economy is Zhejiang’s iconic calling card. In 2025, private industrial enterprises above designated size accounted for 92.7% of all such enterprises in the province, contributing 73.3% of the total industrial added value. Zhejiang enjoys a high degree of external economic openness. In 2025, its total foreign trade volume, export volume and import volume accounted for 12.2%, 15.5% and 7.4% of China’s national totals respectively, ranking 3rd, 2nd and 6th nationwide. Zhejiang maintains trade relations with more than 240 countries and regions. Its top two trading partners are ASEAN and the European Union, complemented by emerging markets across the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. Foreign trade volume with Belt and Road partner countries exceeded 3 trillion yuan for the first time. The province is home to 132,000 actual foreign-trade enterprises, while the number of foreign-invested enterprises surpassed 8,000. A total of 3,005 China-Europe (Yiwu–Europe) freight trains departed throughout the year. Domestic entities from Zhejiang invested in establishing 1,460 overseas enterprises, with approved outbound investment reaching 14.93 billion US dollars, of which investment in Belt and Road countries amounted to 11.36 billion US dollars upon official approval.
Zhejiang’s World Heritage sites include Jianglang Mountain, West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou, the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal, and the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City. As of November 2022, Zhejiang held 241 national intangible cultural heritage items and 11 UNESCO intangible cultural heritage listings, maintaining the highest overall number across China.
Zhejiang promotes the tourism brand of “Poetic & Picturesque Zhejiang”, striving to build itself into China’s premier tourist destination with comprehensive initiatives for a provincial-wide “Grand Garden Construction”. It later launched the provincial thematic brand slogan: “Poetic Jiangnan, Dynamic Zhejiang”. Natural scenery and profound human landscapes blend perfectly across the region. As the host city of the 2016 G20 Summit, Hangzhou features a unique charm where history resonates with modern vitality.
By 2022, Zhejiang had 27 Excellent Tourism Cities of China. It boasts over 800 major landform attractions, more than 200 water scenery spots, over 100 biological landscape sites and another 100 cultural and historical scenic areas, alongside more than 450 major island resorts available for tourism development. The province possesses 22 national scenic areas, 4 national tourist resorts, and 197 high-grade A-level scenic spots above 4A (ranking first and second nationwide respectively). There are also 10 national nature reserves, 30 National Garden Cities, 11 national wetland parks, 5 national urban wetland parks and 39 national forest parks — making Zhejiang the province with the largest number of forest parks nationwide. In addition, it has 9 national historical and cultural cities, 20 famous historical and cultural towns and 28 traditional villages of China, topping the country in the total count of renowned towns and villages. A total of 134 major historical and cultural sites are protected at the national level, together with themed museums dedicated to silk, tea, fashion, and Southern Song Dynasty imperial porcelain.